The present invention relates to a radio wave-standardized electric timepiece which receives an externally produced standard time signal and corrects the time.
It is known that the prior art radio wave-standardized electronic timepiece is automatic reception. The automatic reception means that even if the user does not operate the timepiece, it assumes a reception condition when an established time comes, and that the timepiece does not permit the user to establish a reception time suited for the living pattern of the user.
It is also known that the automatic reception assumes a reception condition from the start of a reception time zone established every day.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the system of the prior art radio wave-standardized electric timepiece. A divider 2 devides the frequency of the output signal from an oscillator 1. A time counter 3 consisting of an arithmetic processing circuit or the like receives the output signal from the divider 2 and produces an output signal to a display means 15. An antenna 9 receives an externally produced standard time signal. A receiver circuit 10 receives, amplifies and detects the output signal from the antenna 9.
The output signal from the receiver circuit 10 is converted into 1/0/* (* indicates a signal that cannot be converted into 1 or 0) by a received data detection circuit 11. Its data is stored in a received data storage circuit 12. A received data acceptance decision circuit 13 makes a decision to see if the received data stored in the received data storage circuit 12 contains given information.
A transfer circuit 14 produces modifying pulses to a time information calculation circuit 16 in response to the received data stored in the received data storage circuit 12 according to the output signal from the received data acceptance decision circuit 13. An established reception time is stored in N memories, starting with memory 1 and ending with memory N, included in a storage time comparison circuit 19. This storage time comparison circuit 19 receives information held in a minute counter and in an hour counter included in the time counter 3. The storage time comparison circuit 19 compares the received information with the information stored in the memories l-N, where N is a positive integer equal to or greater than 2.
An OR circuit 20 receives the output signals from the memories l-N of the storage time comparison circuit 19 and produces an output signal that is the logical OR of these input signals. An R-S latch 21 is set when information about the day held in the time counter 3 has changed and is reset by an output signal which is produced when the received data acceptance decision circuit 13 determines that the received data contains given information. A two-input AND circuit 22 receives the output signal from the OR circuit 20 and the output signal from the R-S latch 21 and controls the receiver circuit 10 according to the logical AND of these two input signals.
The prior art structure described above is disclosure in, for example, Patent Laid-Open Nos. JP-A-107776/1979 and JP-A-191981/1986.
However, the prior art radio wave-standardized electronic timepiece can automatically receive only in a certain time zone in a day, generally in the nighttime in which the amount of noise is small. Where the certain time zone is from 0 o'clock to 3, if the user lives in a building of reinforced concrete or the like into which radio waves cannot reach or do not easily reach, then the automatic reception is impossible. Therefore, it is difficult to correct the time by the automatic reception method. Also, in a location where the timepiece is successful in reception only at three o'clock within the above described time zone every day, the timepiece begins to assume reception condition at 0 o'clock every day. Hence, an amount of electric current is consumed wastefully.